Simon’s experience covers commercial, research and education for marine ecological sciences. His PhD, from the University of Southampton, studied antifoul pollution impacts on non-target species whereupon he focuses his interests in marine pollution, ecology, ecotoxicology, habitat restoration and management of human impacts on marine / estuarine and freshwater interface systems.
Simon has interests in non-native marine species and is currently leading an ESRI supported research project developing an environmental management tool for shipping using a GIS web interface, he is also a member of the IMarEST Biofouling Management Expert Committee. He has been regularly engaged to provide expertise on marine pollution and environmental impacts (EIA) of marine / estuarine based projects, management of contaminated harbour sediments and ecological risks, and has provided risk assessments for non-native species transfer.
Simon was an invited guest and respondent to a Netherlands Government meeting in 2018 to discuss regulation against copper based antifoul and in 2018-2019 he undertook two projects for the UN International Maritime Organisation considering marine microplastic pollution and end-of-life Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) vessel disposal. In 2019 as part of the IMarEST group, he provided feedback to the Australian Govt. Department of Agriculture’s Consultation Regulation Impact Statement regarding biofouling management and in water cleaning approaches.
Simon retains visiting researcher status at the University of Southampton where he recently gave a series of 3rd year lectures on marine pollution, non -native marine species, and marine ecology and human project impacts. He has regularly been asked to comment on marine pollution aspects for media articles, particularly antifoul related. Simon is a grant reviewer for Hong Kong University (marine pollution and ecology) and an invited reviewer for papers from the Journal of the Marine Biological Association and has a continuing record of academic papers mainly in marine ecology and pollution.
Ilse obtained her PhD at the University of Southampton, investigating GIS use in water catchment management and how spatial modelling can improve the prediction of future water availability within catchment areas, considering current and predicted future development, physical and biological constraints and policy.
Subsequently, Ilse has extensive experience in water resources management and spatial data science, with a background in catchment, estuarine and fluvial geomorphological systems. Ilse’s water resources skills have led her to work on various UNDP, EU, DFID and World Bank projects examining the impact of land use change and practices on rivers, estuaries and coastal systems and the vulnerability of human communities to these changes; these projects have involved global travel from UK to former Soviet Bloc nations, China / Africa / Philippines etc.
Her knowledge of and experience in water resource management and assessment has led to her providing consultation support for the environmental impact phase of HS2 and for the Heathrow Expansion and proposed 3rd runway development. To compliment her water resources skills, Ilse has in-depth knowledge of GIS analysis, data management and geospatial modelling. Working with Simon, Ilse has authored a GIS study of the management of contaminated harbour sediments, and has had input on numerous marine habitat restoration studies using GIS for temporal / spatial assessment. In addition, Ilse is working with Simon on the ESRI backed AQASS project researching developing an environmental management tool for shipping using a GIS web interface.
She is a visiting researcher at the University of Southampton as well as a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and a Practitioner Member of IEMA. She has co-authored several papers including an internationally cited study considering habitat refugia in climate change scenarios; she also presented a paper at the annual meeting of the British Society for Geomorphology in 2019.